


Say My Name (Not That One)

by Librarian_Alexandria



Series: Soulmate AUs [4]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Barista Percy Jackson, Fluff, Idiots in Love, M/M, One Shot, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, let me live, soulmates get their marks when they say their soulmate's name, they're idiots, they're stupid let them live, yes its another soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:08:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25133671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Librarian_Alexandria/pseuds/Librarian_Alexandria
Summary: The really hot barista keeps writing Nico di Angelo as Nick Odie-Angelo, but he's too awkward to correct him. But even if the barista didn't say his real name, Nico said his, and nothing happened.Percy wears his co-workers’ name tags because he forgets his at home, and sure, that way no one can realize he's their soulmate, but he always says his customer's names when they get their orders. And Nick-Odie, no matter how cute, isn't his soulmate.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Percy Jackson
Series: Soulmate AUs [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1804483
Comments: 2
Kudos: 251





	Say My Name (Not That One)

Nico looked down at his coffee. Written in a loose scrawl was the name “Nick-Odie Angelo”  
He knew he spoke fast, but this was really ridiculous. The barista smiled at him. He almost wanted to correct him, but damn, that smile was so cute, he didn’t want to make him feel bad.  
“Thanks, uh, Jason?”  
The barista smirked, like he knew something Nico didn’t. It was… kind of hot.  
“No problem Nick-Odie,” he said, handing Nico the receipt. He lingered on the barista’s face a little too long, noticing the amusement in his eyes.  
Sea-green… really pretty, his brain supplied unhelpfully.  
“Anything else I can do for you?” he asked, and Nico must have turned bright red judging by the heat he felt on his face.  
“Uh, no, no, sorry, thank you, have a nice day,” Nico mumbled, and headed to his table. How he was supposed to concentrate on his work now was beyond him. He had to write an essay about the Odyssey, for crying out loud.  
He took a sip of his coffee, which was thankfully correct, unlike his name.

“You know, you’d probably find your soulmate faster if you wore your own name tag,” Jason said, grabbing the tag from Percy’s apron. Percy rolled his eyes.  
“Whatever, Grace, it’s not like I’m looking. Besides, I always say my customers’ names when I give them their coffee. Kinda disappointing though, sometimes.”  
Jason raised his eyebrows.  
“You see something you like out there?” he asked teasingly, gesturing to the tables. Percy wanted to shrug it off but his face betrayed him.  
“You did!” Jason poked him, grinning like an idiot. “You know, not everyone goes for their soulmate, people are open these days.”  
He hated to admit it, since he’d literally just met the guy, if you would even count it as a meeting, but a little spark of hope went off in his head. And Nick was super cute, especially when he blushed. Maybe he wasn’t set on his soulmate either. Doubtful.  
Still, no harm in flirting a bit.

Nico was ready to throw the whole soulmate thing out the window. He’d been coming back almost every weekend. The coffee was good, the wifi was good.  
The barista is hot, that stupid voice would chime in.  
Well, it wasn’t wrong.  
Even if Jason didn’t say his actual name, Nico had said his, and well, nothing. So that ruled out the soulmate possibility. But still, it wasn’t like you had to be soulmates to fall in love. Not that he had fallen in love with the barista with his cheeky grins and messy black hair and single dimple and-  
No, he wasn’t falling in love with him. He had a little crush.  
And every time, he debated asking him out, and every time, he stopped himself. What if the barista was waiting for his soulmate? God, that rejection would sting. And he’d never be able to come back to the coffee shop. Ever.

Nick-Odie just kept coming back, which made life a bit difficult for Percy, considering he kept having to steal Jason’s name tag. Thank god their schedules were fairly consistent on the weekends, so for now, he and Jason wouldn’t be working at the same time. Hell, if that happened, Percy would make Jason wear his own name tag and keep wearing Jason’s.  
He wasn’t entirely sure why it mattered so much that Nick had a good impression of him. It would have been fine if, the second time he came in to order a coffee, Percy had just said, oh, yeah, my name’s not Jason, I just wear his name tag because he leaves it here and I forget mine. But no, he just had to play along with it. Now he would never be able to tell him his real name. If he ever got the courage to ask out the dark-haired vanilla latte drinker, he’d probably have to legally change his name to Jason.  
Except he never had the courage to ask him out. What if Nick-Odie was set on finding his soulmate? God, even worse, what if he’d already found his soulmate?

Nico felt like an idiot. Hell, he was an idiot. He was already halfway home when he realized he’d left his textbook behind.  
Better his textbook than his laptop, though. Well, actually, they were fairly close together in price, especially if you considered the amount of hassle he would be put through to catch up and order a new one. And his laptop was a piece of junk.  
He practically turned a perfect 180 on his heel and headed back to the coffee shop, too concerned about his book to care if he looked stupid.  
He was pretty much jogging now. Who would steal a college textbook? His mind tried to rationalize.  
People just steal stuff sometimes! The other part countered.  
He narrowly missed a woman and her, frankly enormous, dogs.  
“Sorry!”  
He burst through the doors and bolted to his table, where, thankfully, his book was still sitting. But it was open, and being inspected by none other than Jason the hot barista, and Nico wanted the ground to swallow him up.

Percy thought it was his lucky day when Nick left in such a hurry he forgot his textbook. You know, maybe he’d have his number written in there, in case of situations like this. And then Percy would just happen to have his number. And he’d casually suggest meeting somewhere to pick up the book. He’d figure it out.  
Instead, no number. Instead, in handwriting that (and this was were Percy realized he was properly smitten) was super cute, was the name Nico di Angelo.  
Admittedly, hotter than Nick-Odie. Italian was like… the less pretentious version of French. And that was pretty hot.  
But oh my god, Percy felt like an idiot, an English speaking, hard of hearing idiot. And the poor guy hadn’t corrected him, for months!  
(To be fair, formerly Nick-Odie thought his name was Jason)  
As he was staring at the offending name, it’s owner burst into the coffee shop, and rightfully looked flustered.

“You could have corrected me.”  
That was what Jason said as Nico, most likely beet red, grabbed the book.  
“Didn’t want to make it awkward,” he muttered, stuffing it into his bag.  
The barista looked sheepish.  
“I know the feeling, actually,” he said, his hand running through his hair, not looking Nico in the eye. Nico felt his brows scrunch together, probably looking like a confused child.  
“My name’s not actually Jason, I just always forget my name tag, and he always leaves his here, and I didn’t want to tell you in case you thought I was weird or something and you know, you’re already way out of my league but if you thought I was an idiot-”  
“What’s your name?” Nico asked, cutting him off. The butterflies in his stomach might as well have been bees for how jittery he felt at the knowledge that the hot barista thought Nico was out of his league, of all things.  
“Percy.”  
Nico stuck out his hand, hoping his expressing has teasing as he said, “Hello Percy, nice to meet you.”  
At least, that was the plan, because what he actually said was “Hello Percy, nice to—fuck!”  
Percy’s face flashed with what he assumed was concern.  
“Nick, sorry, Nico? Ow!”  
They were both staring down at their wrists now, where a thick black line had appeared. Nico hadn’t expected it to hurt so much.  
Wait.

As soon as the name was out of Percy’s mouth, he felt what he could only compare to the time Piper tried to pierce his ear with a safety pin, except on his wrist.  
He looked down on instinct, and watched in… awe? As the black strip spread over his wrist.  
Then he looked up. At Nico. At his soulmate.  
“Oh my god,” he said, still holding his arm in his other hand.  
Nico just stared at him, eyes wide.  
“Go out with me?” he blurted, and his signature blush was back.  
“Duh,” was all Percy could manage, reaching for Nico’s hand on instinct. It fit perfectly in his. Of course it did. They were literal, actual soulmates. He would have said yes either way, if he was honest.  
Nico laughed, and Percy realized he must have said at least some of his internal monologue out loud.

Percy was his soulmate. Hot barista was his actual soulmate. And he apparently liked Nico already, if his weird little murmur-speech was anything to go by.  
“Right now?” Nico asked, and cursed the overconfident part of him that had taken control.  
“I just finished my shift,” Percy said, already standing up, “where do you want to go?”  
“Coffee? Not here, obviously.”  
Percy laughed, and oh my god, he could get high off of that sound.  
“Whatever you want, Nico.”


End file.
